Despite launching a plethora of Holi special trains to cater to the anticipated rush of passengers traveling to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and North India during the festive season, the Indian Railways is facing a major setback. The reservation tickets for these special trains are not selling well, causing concern for railway...
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officials. A list released by the South Eastern Railway (SER) shows that only a small fraction of tickets have been booked on 21 Holi special trains originating from the zone. For instance, the Tata-Barauni Holi Special train (08857) has only 8 out of 4592 seats booked. The Santragachi-Madhuban Nagar Holi Special train (08845) has the highest ticket sale, but even in this case, 676 out of 2128 seats remain vacant. This lack of demand indicates that the Railway Ministry, in its haste to launch a large number of special trains for Holi, overlooked the need for proper planning and failed to assess the actual demand for trains. As a result, a significant number of seats on these special trains, including those originating from Tatanagar, Ranchi, and Howrah, are going empty.